Stolen Rat runs of the city: Fry's Close

Our coverage of Bristol before the war on motorists began got a lot of interest, so expect some intermittent coverage of places stolen from us.

Here then: Fry's Close.

This used to be a secret shortcut from Park Road, Stapledown, over to Blackberry Hill, bypassing a jam on Park Road and a mini-roundabout. A treasured rat-run of the early 1990s

And now: abandoned to cyclists, pedestrians and their pets. At the bottom of the vale, there's even a path linking Eastville Park (on the right) to a path leading to UWE. That is: students are being encouraged to cycle.



This is just wrong.

Now: does anyone actually remember when this road closed? One team member has distinct, fond memories of the queue of stationary traffic heading towards Blackberry Hill from about '89-90, but certainly by 2006: gone. At some point between those dates, the council stole it from us, the taxpayers.